Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Burger King and Crispin Porter + Bogusky have commissioned Stacy Peralta, director of Made in America, to document Whopper Virgins, people who taste Burger King Whoppers for the very first time. The documentary, will show people without American bias taste testing the Whopper alongside the McDonald’s Big Mac. Burger King travels in 13 planes, 2 dog sleds and 1 helicopter over 20,000 miles to find people who have never heard of the WHOPPER and perform the world’s purest taste test. Locations visited include a remote hill village in north Thailand, a rural farming community in Romania and icy tundra of Greenland.

During eDay 2008 online sinners had the opportunity to confess their interactive failures to the high priests of online comunication. Advertisers and communication professionals asked them anonymously about their web based doubts. The word of relief by the high priests did have a healing salvation for the participants. They developed a striking guerrilla poster. Even at the toilet the target group was driven to the "fathers of online communication".

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Weeds is a show about a single mum who starts selling pot to make ends meet. It was being shown on Prime, a relatively new channel on New Zealand television. So they needed to get Prime to start challenging the other, more mainstream channels. To promote Weeds, they dressed a real home up as a drug house, complete with a hydroponics room and drug paraphernalia. Then they put it on the market. It was promoted how you would with any house on the market ­ with a full-page ad in the Property Press, a prominent weekly real estate newspaper. The copy was written as a send-up of real estate clichés, and invited interested parties to turn up. When they arrived, a fake real estate agent gave them the full tour. And when the bemused folks left the house, they were given a business card with details about the show. After thumbing their noses at the law, the Open Home, as well as getting one of the highest response rates ever in the area, gained coverage in the New Zealand Herald (New Zealand's largest daily newspaper). It turned Weeds into one of the highest-rating shows on Prime ­ viewership was up 600% over the previous week ­ and helped turn the channel into a main contender.

An international conference was being held in Wellington, New Zealand's capital, to ratify a treaty that would ban cluster bombs. They had to get New Zealanders to oppose a weapon they had never heard of. They flew above Wellington and performed the most literal mail drop ever, letting loose 30,000 bomb-shaped leaflets out of a plane. The leaflets were also petitions addressed to the New Zealand Minister of Defence. People signed the leaflets and sent them in to show their support. 34% of the leaflets were signed and sent in. The event gained coverage on 3 News, New Zealand's most-watched news programme, and the Dominion Post, the capital's leading daily newspaper. But most importantly, the treaty was signed. After being ratified in New Zealand, the delegates took the treaty to Dublin, then Oslo. And the campaign went with them. There is now a worldwide ban on the manufacture and use of cluster bombs.

With the luxury car market facing declining sales, it has become more important than ever to attract new buyers rather than just up-selling existing drivers. Unfortunately, BMW's competitors in this price bracket ­ like Porsche ­ tend to have fiercely loyal customers. Previous attempts to contact these conquest prospects had achieved dismal response rates. Subvert the traditional car launch process and ask prospects to review the car ahead of journalists. They sent Porsche drivers a mysterious package containing an mp3 player. There was no branding on the pack - the only clue was the German postmark. The mp3 message (in authentic German accent) spoke to people individually by name and invited them on a top-secret sneak preview test drive. Respondents were chauffeured one by one to a private airport, where they unveiled the new BMW X6 and recorded their comments on camera. They filmed each person with a dashboard camera as they put the X6 through its paces on the runway, and then edited the footage so that each driver had their own personal review on DVD. The most satisfying result was capturing Porsche drivers on camera raving about BMW. But the results also stacked up from a numbers point of view. A staggering 72% of these completely cold prospects said YES to a test drive. This was the most overwhelming response BMW has ever had in New Zealand. So overwhelming, in fact, that they had to stop mailing when they were only halfway through the list.

Arouse interest for the erotic shop Condomi with as little expenditure as possible. When customers leave an erotic toy shop, they are usually equipped with shoppingbags that are intended to look inconspicuous. Therefore they designed shopping bags that deal with the subject sex openly and playfully, thus deliberately provoking people and attracting great attention. The shopping bags very soon became cultic objects. Condomi customers turned to walking advertisements and attracted interest which produced an influx of many new customers.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

WWF/Adena has spent years making people aware of the implications of climate change and that everything may come to an end if we don't do something to stop it. From the smallest things, to the biggest, the planet. In order to get people to join up over the 2007 Christmas period, they enclosed a WWF/Adena insert in certain book collections in several bookshop around Madrid. The insert looked like just another page in the book. A leaf of the same paper, same weight, same colour, same font... On the page was written "The End", surprising the reader that the book had ended long before the last page. In this way they wanted people to understand that any story, anything, can end before it is supposed to if we do nothing. So, on the other side, they asked them to help stop climate change by joining WWf/Adena. WWF/Adena received a reply from 20% of the enclosed coupons, considerably increasing during the first two weeks the number of mebers and partners.

Friday, December 12, 2008

In order to encourage responsible drinking, they designed an action for Primus Beer using urban elements usually involved in traffic accidents. Light poles and hydrants were covered with disco globe mirrors, icons of nightlife. A poster completed the message: "Don't end your night here. Don't drink and drive".

Every year during the monsoon season. Thailand is hit by outbreaks of dengue fever. During this time of the year, the Thai Red Cross usually has its big annual donation campaign. In 2008, SC Johnson (Thailand) co-promotes with the Thai Red Cross Society in its annual blood donation campaign with the emphasis to eradicate the dengue fever. SC Johnson sees a great opportunity at this to encourage trail usage of OFF! in conjunction with the Thai Red Cross campaign through product sampling across the infested regions of Thailand. A product sampling piece was created to dramatically and effectively demonstrate the need to give blood but to the right party! (to those people in need instead of the dengue carrying mosquitoes!) On the blood bag was a bold headline that reads: Give Blood To Those Who Deserve It. Inside the blood bag there is a sampling sachet of OFF! This sampling piece is given out at street corners, handed out at blood donations points, and also mailed to previous blood donors nationwide. Also other medium to reach target audience with posters, ambient and stickers. The results from this co-operation saw around 30% of blood donors were aware and influenced by the OFF sample piece (3.78 out of 5 point-scale, in intention to participate in this activity) Also with this co-promotion, the over-all number of blood donors increased by 20% from the previous year.

The Internet-based travel provider expedia.de would like to advertise an Italy special in an attention-grabbing way. They used an unusual advertising space that is also typical of Italy: the milk foam on a cappuccino. In cooperation with coffee shops (Deli Star), stencils are distributed wich are used to create the offer in cocoa on top of the milk foam. Underneath the cup is a paper coaster printed with expedia.de's name and text explaining the offer. As a result of the positive customer feedback, the Italy special will be repeated next year.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Volkswagen dealer Martin Schilder, one of the largest car dealerships in the Netherlands, was in serious need of 6 mechanics. Their job was to find them. Regular ads run the previous 6 months had failed to find the mechanics. And there was not much left in the advertising budget. So they sent 2 young women in an old Volkswagen to several car repair stations. They asked if a mechanic could take a look under their car because of a strange sound. Every mechanic immediately put their car on a lift to take a look. There they saw their hidden message: 'Wanted: Mechanics. www.martinschilder.nl'. This whole stunt was filmed by a hidden camera and put on the internet as a viral. With a lot of free publicity as a calculated consequence. The mechanics were very surprised when they saw the hidden message underneath the car and often asked colleagues to also take a look. The viral film was posted on a lot of car related websites and a lot of free publicity was generated, not only in all kinds of car dealer magazines, but also in regional newspapers and even in the largest national newspaper. This publicity was planned and hoped for. By doing so they could reach more mechanics than were actually visited. The 6 mechanics were found!

The task was to create a direct mailing for the BESTÅ storage system from IKEA. BESTÅ allows many different cabinet fronts to be combined freely, and the mailing should encourage IKEA Family Members to purchase it. IKEA Family is IKEA’s customer club. They produced a magic cube with a different cabinet front printed on each side to communicate the endless combinations possible with BESTÅ. It came in a box that was designed to look like a living room inside. Each cube was also a voucher for a free delivery service for BESTÅ, providing an extra incentive for the purchase. The direct mailing was a great success - within two months, 42% of all contacted Family members had purchased a BESTÅ storage system and used the free delivery service.

They were asked to develop a dialogue marketing promotion which communicated the product benefit of Schwarzkopf Re-Nature, which aroused curiosity about the product and generated as many requests for Re-Nature samples as possible. Re-Nature is a regimentation crème which gradually restores the original natural tone to grey hair. Their mailing focused on this product benefit quite simply by illustrating the result as a progression from light grey to black, beginning the text very timidly and becoming increasingly confident. This enables us not only to highlight the external appearance but also to dramatise the confidence regained thanks to Re-Nature. In particular, the traditional letter itself becomes the whole message, with an entertaining product presentation. The Success: As simple as it is successful. A high response rate was achieved; 9.4% ordered the sample of Re-Nature by e-mail.

The “Christmas Card Making Machine” is an over-sized Christmas card display in the London agency’s front window. The card houses two large screens showing a scrolling chain of 12 characters. When passers-bys stand in the footprints outside the window, the installation captures their image and embeds their face on a character, which then joins the chain. The ever-growing chain can be viewed at www.christmascardmakingmachine.com, where users can also create their own Christmas cards.

They wanted to attract more students. So it installed WiFi in some of its stores near universities. The problem is, lots of students just come into the store for the WiFi but hardly look at the menu. So They and CoffeeCompany decided to move the store's menu into the WiFi menu of customers' laptops.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Cars and Boxes, the German toy car specialist, wanted to create awareness for the online store cars and boxes.de and point of sale. The core market is the collectors’ community of adult men who love toy cars and who also love the aesthetics involved in muscle car culture. The toy cars from Cars and Boxes are so authentic that the clichè "women and cars"concept still works. They created a 2006 calendar showing, in 12 different themes, models posing on toy cars. The calendar is part of the campaign which also includes in-store poster and ads. The calendar was sold out in a really short time and increased hits on the Webpage.

By using this new advertising medium they were able to reach their audience at exactly the moment they were doing what they were trying to encourage them not to do. An increase of almost 50% in calls to the Quit helpline were registered in the first week and, due to the first use of advertising in this medium, press coverage was quick to highlight the 'cleverness of the message, within the environment' and portray the execution as 'a wonderful shock tactic that should force even the hardened smoker to quit'. Quit now plan to roll out as many execution of the ad as they can possibly afford in the hope that more smokers will become aware of the potential dangers. Quit is an independent charity whose aim is to save lives by helping smokers to stop. Stopping smoking is not easy, but it can be done. Their task was to find a new and innovative way to encourage smokers to make that 'first step' and contact Quit for more information on how best they could finally give up the habit. Since the introduction of the smoking ban throughout the UK, to alleviate cigarette litter, 'adbins' have sprung up all over London. What better way to engage smokers, than to communicate with them when they are actually smoking? Their X-ray of the lungs, gradually being filled with ash and cigarette butts, served to shock smokers into realising exactly what harm they were doing to their bodies.

Approximately 100.000 households in Vienna found this circular in their letter-boxes. The clickrate on www.ikea.at increased by 13% in the week after distribution. To communicate that IKEA offers furniture solutions for small rooms to anybody who lives in a multi-storey building. The realisation has to be cost-effective and surprising. A letterbox is the perfect place to show the IKEA furniture solutions for small spaces. So out of a conventional circular they made an exceptionally eye-catching mailing which is surprising fun to find in the letterbox.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

The 10 heated shelters, primarily in downtown Chicago locations like Michigan Avenue and State Street, will have posters that read: “Cold, provided by winter. Warmth, provided by Stove Top.” The posters will also appear on 40 other bus shelters that will not have heated roofs. Kraft is arranging for the company that builds and maintains the bus shelters, JCDecaux North America, to heat them, trying to bring to life the warm feeling that consumers get when they eat stuffing, according to Kraft. Such “experiential marketing” is intended to entice consumers to experience products or brands tangibly rather than bombard them with pitches.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Good day golfers. No need to worry, this is not some obscure land redistribution programme set out to upset your handicap. But at least we have your attention. Although what we ultimately need is your assistance. We are a group of corporations and individuals with a dream to build as many soccer pitches as we can in townships and rural areas around South Africa. Leaving a lasting legacy, long after the closing ceremony of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Considering that one average-sized golf course like this is equivalent to 500 pitches, it’s not a pipedream either. Imagine the joy even one newly levelled field would bring to millions of kids who play the beautiful game in the rough. You can sponsor DreamBags (kit, balls & boots), DreamEvents (tournaments and leagues) or DreamFields. If you would like to help us make dreams real for many children, we’d love to hear from you. Enjoy your beautiful game.

In a New York City park, A Diamond is Forever sponsored an installation where couples could document a kiss in 360-degree video, from December 1st until today. For a $5 donation to the Elton John AIDS Foundation for World AIDS Day, couples kissed beneath a mistletoe arrangement while 60 cameras photographed them from all angles. The photographs were combined into moving video images, which are available for download on www.adiamondisforever.com.

Turn the wellknown Axe effect into a live stunt. Every year Europe's largest womens running event takes place in Aarhus, Denmark. This year more than 6.000 women paticipated in the race and an enourmous crowd along the roads was following the event. Immediatly after the race begins, a man in an AXE T-shirt jumps over the fence approximately 100 meters after the starting line. He begins to spray himself with AXE deodorant and start to run along the route, when the 6.000 women gets near him. From the point of view of the spectators along the road, they saw a man - wearing an AXE T-shirt - that was being hunted by over 6.000 woman. By the way, this year the time record was broken by over 1 minute.

Stage an event for the biggest day in Kosovo’s history - The Declaration of Independence. At the same time avoid any instance that would uproar the crowd and yet provide a joyful manifestation. They were given 10 days to complete the project. They identified the event with a symbol that would be part of this day and the people that gathered around it. They created a 3D interactive sculpture NEWBORN that would become the media. People used it as a tool to express all their emotions via black permanent markers, which they provided during the event. This lasted throughout Feb 17 2008. Over 150,000 people wrote on it, starting with the President and the Prime Minister. Millions accross the world saw it on TV. CNN, BBC and other major networks covered it live. The sculpture made it to the front page of the New York Times and was mentioned in major newspapers and websites around the world. NEWBORN as become a historical monument.

Toblerone, the premium Swiss chocolate, was celebrating 100 years of proudly made chocolate. The brand was losing its emotional connection with its main target, mid to high income women with families who adore chocolate. These women had positive feelings towards the brand but they thought of it more as a gift than as a personal treat. They also set out to re-connect the Swiss with a piece of their heritage. The locals and traveling tourists alike were invited to share in Toblerone’s milestone with the launch of the centenary limited edition. The campaign’s theme was the celebrations of Toblerone’s Centennial year. They tapped into the strength and emotion of local pride to make it BIG. Four cities, Genf, Basel, Bern and Zurich, were put to the test. The challenge was to build a Toblerone tower in the shortest possible time. The tour competition was communicated with a press conference, press ads, mailings and TV commercials. The winner city enjoyed a final Schoggifest (choco-party) with a 100kg Toblerone bar for all to share. The biggest in the brand history that made Berners and the whole Switzerland to be proud of. More than 40,000 people helped to build the iconic towers 500,000 visitors to the exhibitions Massive media coverage valued in ChF 2 millions! 60% Centenary Brand Awareness 20% sales up in Switzerland Sales in Zurich airport + 39% 15,000 plus visitors in the final event.

In August 2008, the Games Convention - Europe´s biggest electronic gaming trade fair - was being held in Leipzig for the last time, before being moved to Cologne (Messe Köln) next year in 2009. PlayStation wanted to say farewell to the gamers, the trade fair and most importantly, to the citizens of Leipzig. PlayStation decided to send Sackboy, its current top star and main character of the new, much talked about game Little Big Planet. Sitting on packed moving boxes, he shed 15.000 litres of tears every hour while bidding farewell to thousands of people directly in the city centre.

Everyone has had the experience of having a good night’s sleep in a hotel bed with a partner who woke up with back pain. Or vice versa. Because everyone has his individual way of sleeping, the perfect mattress must respond individually to every human body. And when the perfect mattress responds individually to everyone, the advertising medium for this mattress must do likewise. A media strategy as simple as it is compelling, one that enables the Swiss mattress maker riposa to clearly differentiate itself from strong competitors. “The medium is the message.” This sentence has never been shown to be truer than with the manifestation of the riposa advertising message in the form of an interactive poster. Inspired by the legendary office game named “Pin Art” or “Pin Pressions,” a life-size construction was created whose 2000 aluminum rods can transform any body into an instant sculpture – a head-to-toe impression. Headline: “It responds point by point to your body: the back mattress from riposa.” The riposa Pin Pression celebrated its worldwide premiere at the largest trade fair in Switzerland, muba in Basel. The reactions were immense: Children, teenagers, families, couples and bestagers qued to emulate their backs as Pin Art and be photographed in this pose. The Pin Pression was placed in an area of high frequency and impact – over 300.000 visitors were recorded. In addition, positive reaction was echoed in numerous sales presentations on healthy backs and matresses. Many articles in the local and international press and on websites publicised the event. Given the huge publicity, the production costs of 20’000 Euros and the desired advertising effect were amortised within two days of the exhibition.

This field marketing action took place right before summer, when the shops started displaying their summer and swimwear collections. The intention was to launch the new Ambre Solaire sun protection line. So, they came up with a non-traditional and indirect idea that crossed the benefits of having a nice healthy tan with the benefits of looking good. The common link was fashion and the uncommon media were shopwindows. They approached fashion stores specialized in outdoor activities (mountain, beach, surf, ski); some unisex but most of them sold women’s clothes due to the product’s target being mainly women who are fashion aware and hence worried about their tanline. The stores had their shopwindows facing the street and were subject to sunlight, so to speak, and if a store were to display mannequins in bikinis or bathing suits, all of them had irregular red stains from too much sun. All except one, which kept its normal ‚flesh’ coloured skin. The link between the normal mannequin and the product was established by a poster placed right next to it, that read: ‚Sun protection never goes out of fashion. Ambre Solaire Garnier. Take care.’ People in general seemed very amused even if they were only windowshopping and, between all the shops, 72% of the shoppers who actually bought any swimwear items in the stores spontaneously asked about the product and if there were any samples; of course, they were given free samples and a leaflet with general sun protection tips. Also, the stores’ employees were often approached by curious members of the public who wanted to know more about the action, so awareness was definitely raised.

Henkel wanted to demonstrate that Pattex Clear Power Tape is an extremely strong and above all clear Power Tape that sticks to virtually any surface and resists even extreme pressure. To demonstrate the extreme strength and durability of the tape they used billboards throughout the country that looked like they were made of solid concrete. The posters were suspended using the clear Power Tape which gave the impression that they were hovering midair. Those interested were able to ask for further information about the product by using the Bluetooth facility on their mobile phones. They were also able to order a free sample of the product having first answered the question ‘How much weight can their Clear Power Tape withstand?’. With the world’s first floating concrete poster an average number of 120,000 spectators during the one-week campaign were shown in a surprising and colourful manner that Pattex Clear Power Tape really does live up to its name. With over 10,000 requested samples it became the most successful media campaign of the year. Pattex Clear Power Tape is one of the most successful products in the Henkel adhesive portfolio.

How everyone got talking about a new cooking school. The goal was to publicize a new cooking school in Zurich called Hiltl. The challenge was that the launch took place in mid-summer. This is a time of year when the target audience is outdoors until late in the evening. For this reason, the fountains in the most popular squares in and around Zurich were used as advertising media. The fountains were turned into huge woks, frying pans and soup dishes with wooden ladles up to 6 meters in length and plenty of dry ice. The message was placed directly on these, complete with the website address for more information and registration. The main target audience comprised young urbanites from Zurich and surrounding areas interested in learning to cook. This target audience is hard to reach with traditional media like TV or radio in mid-summer as they spend so much of their life outdoors. The new cooking school quickly became a talking point in the city. It was fully booked for 12 weeks after the campaign. Newspapers, magazines and radio stations reported on the unconventional media strategy and multiplied the advertising effect.

Israeli Food Bank wanted to shake people up and face them with a cruel reality they can no longer deny: Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in hunger! In order to effectively achieve such a result they had to create the most powerful dissonance. They wanted to strike people out of their everyday routine and gain their fullest attention. For the first time, real food plates are placed in regular steel sewer grates out on main streets. They give an exceptional illusion of a kitchen plate dryer, lying on the dirty pavement. The innovative visual combination creates an enormous disruption. The plates don't just carry food anymore. They also carry a message: Too many people eat on the street. The effect was striking! Food Bank's plates created an enormous buzz: The campaign leads to a huge increase in the number of visitors to the website and in the amount of donations made to the organization.

A folder saying Hello down there! was placed on 10.000 womens bicycle saddles in Sweden's major cities. The folder markets an intimate care soap, The soap for down there. Along with the folder came a product sample. A see through shower cap was placed around the saddles, in order to protect the folder from rain. - 9 out of 10 who received a sample on their saddle said they were going to try it. - After the campaign the sales went up 15 % in the neighbourhood the event was carried out. - Many who met the event staff wanted more samples.

Already 1 of 5 children in Switzerland is overweight. Their intention was to show parents and their children that “it takes little to change a lot” (campaign slogan), i.e. to reach a healthy bodyweight. In Switzerland, much is done to counteract the worrying trend of obesity in children. For their campaign, they chose the place where addressing their target audience would be easiest and most effective: on the playground. To convey their message, they took a number of playgrounds all over Switzerland and systematically refitted their swings with truly SUPERSIZED chains or ropes – a change that caught the eye of anyone playing there, or even just passing by. On the swings’ seats they became more explicit by reminding anyone in written form that “Being overweight is not destiny”. In addition, people were referred to Promotion Santé Suisse’s website, where a large number of useful tips were offered to anyone interested in the issue, in particular parents and their children. This whole set-up allowed them to communicate their message in an interactive way, inviting children to become aware of the obesity issue while playing, and at the same time inviting their parents to deal with the problem as well. The media echo created by their campaign was enormous, newspapers, television and radio programmes all covered it, thus creating general awareness for the issue at hand. Debates and discussions were stimulated, their target audience seemed particularly pleased about the playful approach chosen for communicating a basically serious problem. The campaign soon became the talk of the town.

The primary objectives were to generate as much interest as possible that would drive consumers to the restaurants to try the new Big ’N’ Juicy hamburger. An essential insight is that a low-involvement product such as hamburgers is not something consumers are likely to invest time or cognitive resources in. Plus, they are used to being exposed to images of hamburgers, since this is how McDonald’s and competitors are most often portrayed. Therefore, they had to find a different way to grab attention and interest. By showing the burger’s primary product attributes, its size and juiciness, from a new and fresh perspective, they could involve the consumers on a whole different level. Also, they were determined that if you do it in a very unconventional way and let consumers take part in the advertising and draw their own conclusions around it, the potential effects should be so much higher. Large adshels were rebuilt to resemble gigantic serviette dispensers. Huge serviettes, with a very simple message together with McDonald’s logotype printed on them were put inside the dispensers. Thereby, the size of the hamburger was communicated without actually showing it and it’s juiciness was also implicitly shown. The serviettes were made easy to pull out and take home. Each dispenser were re-filled with approximately 20 serviettes each day, which means that many people actually took one (and even more people saw it). Since solutions like this one has never been executed in the Swedish market, it had great novelty value as well. Blogs and other sites all over the world picked up on the media solution. Furthermore, and most importantly, the Big ‘n’ Juicy sales were a success.

Sweden is the second largest coffee consuming country in the world per capita, second only to Finland. Swedes need their coffee to stay alert and function normally as human beings. Much in the same way an Englishman needs a good cup of tea! This insight was the foundation of the media solution, an outdoor site turned into a huge push puzzle. Consumers and passers by could solve the puzzle in order to ”sort someone’s head out” and at the same time check they were also of sound mind! In the year McDonald’s have sold around 90 million cups of coffee nationwide, with an estimated income of 97 million Swedish crowns. That’s around 9.7 million Euros.

Reinforce the surprising whiteness of Tide in a delightful, unique way. They turned City light posters into Tide boards. Attached to the boards you could find a pen in order to express yourself on the white surface. By pushing down the bar with the Tide logo the boards showed surprising whiteness again. People were attracted by the unique poster and took the opportunity to write or draw something on the board. Afterwards they experienced the Tide benefit of surprising whiteness by pushing down the bar with the Tide logo. The Tide Board created a lot of attention. Passing people spontaneously experienced the ‘Tide-effect’ and left with a smile on their face.

Amnesty International’s task is to inform the public about the violation of human rights all over the world. The aim of the campaign is to let people know that human rights are being violated just a short flight away. In order to communicate this message, they created a straightforward concept: „It’s not happening here. But it is happening now.“ They delivered this message in one of Switzerland’s most popular TV programs: the weather channel. This non-stop program is broadcast in ski resorts and hotel rooms, showing the current weather in the most beautiful parts of the Swiss countryside. They showed footage of the abuse of human rights in other countries during the broadcast and let two worlds collide. With pictures of famous places and its Swiss traditional music, the weather channel gives the viewer a safe and carefree feeling. Pictures of violence is the last thing the viewer expects in this environment, making this simple message even more powerful. The target audience of Amnesty International is the general public as well as the media. The campaign generated a strong increase in traffic on the AI-website.

Many traffic accidents happen when drivers change lanes without paying enough attention. That is why Mercedes-Benz introduced its newly developed Blind Spot Assist system, a technology that allows drivers to monitor those areas around their cars that they normally wouldn't be able to see. The aim was to create awareness for the Blind Spot Assist system and to demonstrate the leadership of Mercedes-Benz as a car maker that always finds new, innovative ways for promoting traffic safety. This double message was to be communicated in a simple, yet surprising way. Traffic mirrors are quite similar in function to the Blind Spot Assist system, since they too show drivers those spots that are visually inaccessible to them. And since both are equally helpful tools for preventing car accidents, the former is the ideal medium for promoting the latter. To do so, stickers were attached to a large number of traffic mirrors, e.g. in underground car parks (of supermarkets), at the entry of busy country roads, or in selected places all over the city. In other words: in all the 'tricky spots' where traffic mirrors are supposed to lend drivers a 'helping eye', as it were. It was simple. Everyone understood the function of traffic mirrors, hence everyone understood equally well the benefits of the new Blind Spot Assist system. It was well-timed. For it reached the target group at exactly the right moment, i.e. when they were sensitized to the issue of traffic safety. It was surprising. The target audience simply didn't expect to find any advertising in or around a place like a traffic mirror. First, during the campaign the technology section of the Mercedes-Benz website registered a 200% increase in keyword searches related to the Blind Spot Assist system. Second, there was an increased demand for this new safety features by clients who bought a new Mercedes. Third, many of the existing Mercedes-Benz drivers wanted to have their cars fitted with the new technology.

The communication goal was to introduce the Dutch affluent to the luxurious the Mercedes GL, in a typical Dutch Calvinistic way. In their innovative media strategy they placed outdoor media in 10 of the richest communities in The Netherlands. By personalizing every poster and therefore appealing this affluent society in a very personal way, they used the typical Dutch consumer insight; the Dutch want to show their wealth but not in a posh extravagant way. In their creative execution they simply pictured the Mercedes GLK and its price tag, combined with the personalized message. The message was placed in outdoor media neighboring the houses of those addressed. This strategy resulted to engage the consumer in the most confronting way. This campaign was both aired through personalized outdoor media, and placed in strictly local newspapers of the 10 most fortunate communities. Therefore the campaign on the one side reached the targeted audience, and on the other reached their ‘wannabe rich’ counterparts, influencing their opinions too. The goal of this campaign was a sale of at least 4 Mercedes GL’s amongst a niche audience, the happy view who can afford almost 200.000 euro on a car. During the 2 weeks of the run of this mini campaign sales went up to a total of 12 cars (300% of clients demand). Furthermore, the demand of the personalized posters among those addressed at Mercedes headquarters was overwhelming. Concluding, the campaign resulted in numerous more test drives and possibly more sales in the future.

Demonstrate the advantage of the new smart mhd with start-stop-generator: It reduces emissions significant and thus prevents unnecessary pollution. To show people how polluted cities actually are and – in contrast to that – how clean they could be, they used the city itself as medium. And by the way with an environmental friendly method.They pictured the outlines of a smart fortwo with a high-pressure-cleaner on walls in big cities, telling the clear message: For a cleaner city. The new smart mhd. People – mostly car owners – who live in the city and are concerned about the increasing problem of emissions and environmental pollution. Pedestrians stopped, palpated the walls, took closer looks and photographs. Thus the campaign raised great awareness and became talk of the town immediately.

The greatest advantage of a smart is its incredibly small size. Given today's often jammed streets, driving a smart simply is a smart decision. To demonstrate this, they chose typical trouble spots, places where finding a parking space really is a challenge. The logic behind their campaign: a smart takes up exactly the same space as a regular F200 poster. So they produced over-sized poster pads containing a number of 'parking spaces', ready for tear-off. An approach that was all the more effective considering that posters are the key medium around parking lots. People had fun with the billboards, all of the sheets were gone within a short time, and they obviously enjoyed installing their own parking spaces within the city, thus fooling around a little with the police… The whole campaign quickly became the talk of the town. Smart received dozens of reorders for the billboards. The tear-off posters were installed at strategic inner city locations, particularly in those places where parking spaces are truly hard to come by. Their billboard campaign tripled the number of test drives taken in the smart centres of the region. Together with the other measures of our autumn campaign, this led to an increase in Q4 sales of 15%.

The communication goal was to demonstrate that the Fiat 500 isn’t only a lifeless article, but rather a character, a real person full with life, so that the consumer can get in touch with it. To bring him to life, they brought together for the very first time in Germany four media channels – billboard, LCD ticker, text messaging and internet. Location: Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin. Billboard size: 2 posters, 20 x 30 metres each. Passers-by could text a message, then read it on the billboard’s LCD ticker just minutes later. One person even texted a marriage proposal! The billboard was flanked by online activities. The Fiat homepage ran a live feed to the billboard, and visitors were able to publish their own text messages on the LCD ticker in Berlin too. On Location in Berlin people could send SMS messages. Also they could send messages by the Net. Different newspapers reported on the Fiat 500 Megaposter. The target audience is between 18 and 35, perfect for this media strategy. The ones who sended a SMS, became a SMS-answer in return. Part of this SMS was a hotline, giving the possibility to book a test drive. Over 1000 SMS were send, 82 test drives were booked, adress data were collected. Different newspapers reported on the Fiat 500 Megaposter. A man even proposed marriage to his girlfriend via LCD Mega Poster. In answer to that, Fiat started a successfully search for the couple via SMS Ticker themselves. The wedding car was a Fiat 500 sponsored by Fiat.

Increase awareness of the market leader ALPINA. Demonstrate the product benefits in an attention-grabbing way and increase sales in the local area. The best way to demonstrate the product benefits was to show how the product works under real life circumstances. In order to achieve more attention they just made it a little bigger. So Winter sports enthusiasts experienced the ski goggle’s benefit right where the product was needed. In icy evening temperatures, ALPINA fitted oversized ski goggles to the windscreens of parked cars in ski resorts. Owners who went out to their cars in the morning could see for themselves that ALPINA ski goggles give you “clearer vision in snow and ice” on any slope. In addition to this, ski goggle flyers were placed on the driver’s side on the cars, advertising a special offer on ALPINA ski goggles at local sports shops. The media idea pointed directly at the target group – without any waste coverage. Skiers experienced the product’s benefit right when they were about to drive to the slope. An increase of sales figures up to 50 % above normal of ALPINA ski goggles in the local sports shops.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

To promote the new IKEA catalogue, they thought of a new attention-grabbing way. They didn`t tell people about the new products, they gave them a live-impression. They used the existing architecture of the south station in Vienna. The box-looking windows of the frontside were converted into a giant EXPEDIT rack filled with new IKEA products. It’s size: 480 square meters. The installation was realised for one month and was seen by more than 70,000 passengers daily. Many newspapers reported on the project. Traffic at the two IKEA stores in Vienna increased by 5.7% compared to the same period one year before.

Riding a MINI Clubman is all about its unique driving experience. But spots or conventional print advertising can only talk about how it feels like to take a MINI test-drive. For the launch of the MINI Clubman they wanted their target audience actually to feel how much fun it is to drive their new car. So they created the first virtual test-drive by combining their cinema commercials with new motion tracking technology to an engaging physical experience. For the first drive-it-yourself advert local cinemas were turned into their virtual race tracks during the commercials before blockbusters and sneak previews. A motion sensor captured the audience's movements and turned them into steering impulses which allowed the audience to drive the MINI Clubman through the challenging track on screen via their body movements. Cinemas are relevant meeting points for young people and early adaptors. By turning every commercial before relevant films into a thrilling test-drive and by providing this unique fun experience they involved their target audience. After they passed the finish line they invited them to a real test-drive at their local MINI dealership. The back of the cinema ticket served as an additional response element. The race on the virtual track transformed the normal cinema commercial break into a thrilling test-drive. With enormous response: 10.000 passed out tickets with invitations led to 32% increase in test-drives at local MINI dealers.